Though backed by some powerful organizations (Universal Music Group and Discovery Communications) and a good chunk of seed money, the social site Uber has shut its doors. As blogger Caroline McCarthy points out, it was difficult to understand what Uber really was about. This identity crisis probably led to its demise. This is another example of a failed social site that was missing a clearly identifiable purpose around which a community will form.

We all know that the three most important principles of success in real estate are location, location, and location. With social applications, the three are purpose, purpose, and purpose. Am I beating a dead horse yet? Well, as long as I get calls from clients pursuing social applications without a well formulated purpose then I will continue to beat it. And right now I get many.

Anthony J. Bradley is a group vice president in Gartner Research, managing teams that cover business process management, program and portfolio management, enterprise architecture, IT procurement, IT sourcing, and vendor management. Read Full Bio

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